'12 Years a Slave' earns three Gotham Independent film nominations

"12 Years a Slave" was filmed on Louisiana plantations, uniting past and present.

"12 Years a Slave" was filmed on Louisiana plantations, uniting past and present.

Susan King

The movie awards season got into gear Thursday morning with the nominations for the 23rd Gotham Independent Film Awards. Likely Oscar contender "12 Years a Slave" earned the most nominations with three: best film, best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor and breakthrough actor for Lupita Nyong'o.

Gotham Independent Film Audience Award: The fourth annual award will be voted on by the independent film community, 230,000 film fans worldwide. To be eligible, a U.S. film must have won an audience award at one of the top 50 U.S. or Canadian film festivals from December 2012 to October 2013. Voting begins Oct. 24 at http://www.gotham.ifp.org/audience_award for the 34 films on the eligibility list. The nominees will be announced Nov. 8

The awards are sponsored by the Independent Filmmaker Project, the oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers in the U.S. Fifteen writers, critics and programmers considered 203 eligible submissions.

For the third year, the IFP is also presenting the euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers "Live the Dream" grant, a $25,000 cash award for an alumna of the IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs. Nominees this year are directors Afia Nathaniel, Gita Pullapilly and Deb Shoval.

Besides the competitive awards, actor/director/producer Forest Whitaker, director/writer/producer Richard Linklater and Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, are to receive tributes.

The awards are scheduled to be handed out Dec. 2 at Cipirani Wall Street in New York City.